Pedagogy, Philosophy, and Nonsense Home 

Essays and Links

Latest Essays:
Being Like Children

Trumpet Player, USDA Approved

The Mug, the Magic, and the Mistake
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Autobiography Challenge

Considering Conclusions         

Considering Introductions

Four Meanings of Life

Godot and the Great Pumpkin

    A Major is More Minor  Than You Think

 Thoughts About Picking a Major

Quick Points

Quick Points About Writing

Reading Poetry and Cloud Watching

Revising Revision

Reviving Experience

Reviving Symbolism

Using an Audience

What Makes a Story True

What's the Subject of a Class?

Why Write? Legos, Power, and Control

 Writing and Einstein: The Difference Between Information and Meaning

Writing and the Goldilocks Dilemma

Something Somewhat Vaguely Like a Resumé

POETRY

Selected Poems

The Poetry Process

CREATIVE NON-FICTION (Essays not directly related to education or writing)

The Blessing and the Blues

David and the Revelation

The Dawn, the Dark, and the Horse I Didn't Ride in On (an odd, philosophical, semi-romantic meandering)

The Hair Connection

The Mug, the Magic, and the Mistake

My Other Related Sites:

Showing Class: Writing by Current and Former Students

 

Links to Other Sites

 Pedagogy, Philosophy, and Nonsense by Forrest D. Poston

      Years ago a teacher said he enjoyed conversations with me because I was "lucid." Other people don't always seem to agree. This site isn't likely to resolve the dispute, but spreading the confusion to a wider audience should produce some good conversation, one of life's greatest delights. I'll be posting ideas about general philosophy, education, composition, and bits of quirkiness that may occur late at night.

This site is for both students and teachers, anyone who likes to think, who wants life and education to be more than memorize, regurgitate and forget. Feel free to use or adapt the ideas here. Of course, I wouldn't mind getting credit, especially when the ideas work, but more than that I'd like people to get in touch. Let me know what you tried and what happened (or didn't). Ideas are like clay: the more you work it, twist it, squash it down and start over, the more workable and useful it becomes.

One friend with insight said I'm at my most serious when I appear to be joking. I'm also at my most irritating when my pompous aspect takes control. Just pretend that it's really an attempt at humor.

In the picture above, I'm the one with the longest fur over the least of my body. Forrest D. Poston, teacher, student, writer, auction junky, idealist, and cat cushion. I'm closing fast on 45, writing my dissertation, planning a composition textbook, and hoping to find a college that lets me teach students to do more than memorize, regurgitate, and forget. In the classroom, I do look marginally more professional, and just because I have long hair doesn't mean I'm a revolutionary. It hasn't been all that long ago (high school actually) that I had short hair, black plastic glasses and wore plaid polyester way too often. Still, I do have a tendency to bring out latent insecurities in some people without trying.

 

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Contact, Converse, Critique, Question

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